DES MOINES, Iowa, Sept. 18, 2015 /3BL Media/ - Wells Fargo Home Mortgage announced today, the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month, its support of the goals of the National Association of Hispanic Real Estate Professionals’ Hispanic Wealth Project, which seeks to triple Hispanic household wealth over the next decade. Wells Fargo’s goals over the next 10 years include a projected $125 billion in mortgage originations and a goal of $10 million to support a variety of initiatives that promote financial education and counseling for Hispanic homebuyers. In continued recognition of the importance of hiring and retaining a diverse workforce, Wells Fargo also plans to increase the number of Hispanic home mortgage consultants on its sales team.

“Homeownership is a vehicle through which many people build wealth and financial stability,” said Brad Blackwell, head of portfolio lending for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “Homebuying and its downstream benefits can help improve neighborhoods, local businesses and the overall economy. As the nation’s leading home mortgage lender to racially and ethnically diverse homebuyers, including Hispanics, we support NAHREP in this important mission and want to demonstrate our efforts to do more to increase homeownership to these communities.”

The NAHREP Hispanic Wealth Project Blueprint focuses on three component goals to facilitate Hispanic wealth creation: a 50 percent or greater rate of U.S. Hispanic homeownership, a 50 percent increase in the first-year success rate of Hispanic-owned businesses, and a 25 percent increase in the number of Hispanic households owning non-cash financial assets such as stocks, bonds, mutual funds and 401(k) accounts.

NAHREP is the nation’s fastest-growing Hispanic market-focused real estate housing industry trade association with more than 20,000 members across the country.

“We are extremely pleased to see Wells Fargo’s support of the Hispanic Wealth Project with new and existing programs that align with the project’s goals,” said Jerry Ascencio, chairman of the NAHREP Foundation. “We look forward to seeing the positive impact on local communities and the continuation of our long standing relationship to advance sustainable homeownership for Hispanic-Americans.”

Supporting the Hispanic Wealth Project is part of the larger work of Wells Fargo Home Mortgage to drive lending for minorities across the credit spectrum, first-time homebuyers and low- to moderate-income customers. The diverse segments business strategy focuses on four areas to help these groups achieve homeownership: increasing diversity of Wells Fargo team members, including Home Mortgage Consultants; increasing the company’s presence in diverse communities; providing products, processes and programs that support diverse homeownership; and working with referral sources like real estate agents and nonprofit credit counseling agencies.

“Wells Fargo Home Mortgage has the resources to support the reach of the Hispanic Wealth Project’s goals,” said Cerita Battles, head of Diverse Segments for Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. “We want to seize the opportunity to help address challenges in income and credit policies, and provide access to homebuyer education and counseling to increase consumer confidence among minorities regarding the homebuying process.”

Wells Fargo Support Expands Beyond Home Lending

The goals of the Hispanic Wealth Project align with many programs and initiatives already offered by Wells Fargo.

For example, as part of Wells Fargo Works for Small BusinessSM, Wells Fargo collaborated with the U.S. Hispanic Chamber of Commerce to develop the Chamber Training Institute that trains leaders of diverse-segment chambers of commerce on key business and leadership topics for their members. It is part of Wells Fargo’s four-point plan to help diverse-owned small businesses become credit-ready and access credit.

According to the Economics of Higher Education report, people with a bachelor’s degree will have a considerably higher income than those with a high school diploma. Wells Fargo Education Financial Services works with institutions of higher learning to raise awareness about how education can enhance the quality of life for individuals and communities. Initiatives like CollegeSTEPS, Go College! Now, and Get College Ready provide free financial education resources and tools to help students responsibly pursue their higher education goals.

Wells Fargo also is the leading supporter of Hispanic Scholarship Fund scholarships in the banking industry, having provided more than $3.6 million in scholarship support to 1,230 scholars since 2003.

“Wells Fargo is committed to helping Latinos build financial wealth and accomplish their dreams for their families and our communities,” said Mariela Ure, head of Hispanic Segment Strategy at Wells Fargo. “Working with NAHREP to purposefully build and sustain momentum around this important initiative will further elevate our focus on meeting the financial needs of Latinos and create a path for financial success for generations to come.”

About Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) is a nationwide, diversified, community-based financial services company with $1.7 trillion in assets. Founded in 1852 and headquartered in San Francisco, Wells Fargo provides banking, insurance, investments, mortgage, and consumer and commercial finance through 8,700 locations, 12,800 ATMs, the internet (wellsfargo.com) and mobile banking, and has offices in 36 countries to support customers who conduct business in the global economy. With approximately 266,000 team members, Wells Fargo serves one in three households in the United States. Wells Fargo & Company was ranked No. 30 on Fortune’s 2015 rankings of America’s largest corporations. Wells Fargo’s vision is to satisfy all our customers’ financial needs and help them succeed financially. Wells Fargo perspectives are also available at Wells Fargo Blogs and Wells Fargo Stories.

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